kei, uniquely, in uniqlo

While it warms our cockles that Japanese brand Uniqlo is tapping into tennis as it takes over the world — their SoHo store was the site of our last buying spree — we’re still waiting to see where they take Kei Nishikori‘s on-court kits. Right now it’s pretty basic, with Uniqlo’s texty square logo punctuating the solid colors on his tees and shorts.

Long haul: As you may already know, Kei signed a five-year deal with the company starting this year. More deets to come (from Uniqlo) about the extent of his involvement with the brand.

Desert Sander: By the way, +J, Uniqlo’s playground for designer Jil Sander, began selling its Spring ’11 goods this week. Check out the lookbook for this desert-inspired collection. (Top marks go to outerwear). TSF can only hope she’ll take a page of out of the Stella McCartney book and start fitting Kei. Can you imagine??

Brackets: Kei — still with a ribbon on his tee to keep awareness of the earthquake/tsunami recovery in Japan — won his first-round match against Jeremy Chardy at the Sony Ericsson Open, being contested in Key Biscayne. His next opponent is top seed Rafa Nadal.